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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ROBERT T. lVILDE, OF NEW' YORK, N. Y.

MANUFACTURE OF BONNET-FRAMES.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 28,028, dated April 24, 1860.

To all whom 'it may concern:

Be it known that I, ROBERT T. WILBE, of the city, county, and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement in the Construction of Bonnet-Frames; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, in which- Figure 1, is a perspective view of the front of a bonnet frame constructed according to my invention. Fig. 2, is a view, full size, of a portion of the same, partly in section illustrating the invention more clearly. Fig. 3, is a perspective view of a front made in the old way, shown for the purpose of comparison with my improved front. v

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the several figures.

My invention relates to what are known as lace frames and to those which have lace fronts with the crowns of buckram or other material.

It consists in certain methods of uniting the front wire, the head wire and the brace wires by which a much neater appearance and greater firmness are given to the front of the frame, and a considerable saving of labor is effected in its manufacture.

To illustrate more clearly the character of my invention, I will, before describing it, describe briefly the common method of construction represented in Fig. 3, which is as follows. The wire A, commonly known as the front wire and which also forms the margins of the ears and back of the frame has its terminal portions. f, f, lapped together so as to form a double wire all along the back and these portions are bound and sewed together all along their junction or at intervals. The extremities of the wire B, known as the head wire are secured to the front wire A, behind the ears by being coiled one or more times around the latter wire; and the stay wires C, C, C, are made all of one piece, which is extended across from the front wire to the head wire at regular intervals, and in the intervening spaces runs alternately along the front wire and head wire to which it is sewed. The doubling of the wire A, along the back makes that part of the frame clumsy, and

the portions of the stay wire C, which run along the front wire make the frontv edge of the bonnet, which is the most conspicuous part, of dierent thicknesses in different parts, and the said wire C, will rarely ever keep the desired position behind the front wire but in some places will get below and in some places above it, thus presenting a very uneven appearance.

In my improved mode of constructing the front of the frame, I use for the front wire A, a wire which is no stouter than is commonly used, but one that is more thickly covered with cotton or other fibrous covering material, and instead of running the said wire double all along the back, I strip the fibrous material from a short piece at each extremity and push the so-stripped portions each into the covering material a, beyond the so-stripped portions and then bind and fasten the covering material inclosing the so-stripped portions which lie side by side as shown at b, in Fig. 2, in section, and cut off the ragged ends of the stripped material which makes the back of the frame present a uniform appearance with the front portion of the front wire, as shown in Fig. 1 I use for the head wire B, wire similar to that commonly used, but instead of coiling its ends around the front wire I strip it for a short distance from each end of its covering and bend the so-st-ripped portions at suitable angles and insert them through the covering of the wire A, and pass them along within the said covering parallel with the said wire, as shown dotted at c, c, in Fig. 2. I use for the stay wires C, C, C, a separate piece for each one, of wire similar to what is commonly used; and I attach these to the head wire B, by ceiling their extremities around it, and to the front wire A, by stripping their front terminal portions for some distance and bending the sostripped portions at suitable angles and inserting them through the covering of the said wire A, and passing them along within the said covering parallel with the said wire, as shown at e, in Fig. Q. The whole of the front wire A, is thus made to present a perfectly uniform appearance all around, as shown in Fig. 1, and the front of the frame is much stronger than when made in the old way, with much less labor.

I do not claim the connecting of the stay Wires to the head Wire by ooiling them tated, but a uniformity in the stiffness and around it; but thickness of the front Wire is thereby se- 10 Vhat I do claim in the construction of cured. bonnet frames s- The peculiar method of arranging and uniting the front head and stay Wires as Witnesses: l herein set forth by means of Which the man- S. H. WALES, ufacture of bonnet frames is not only facilil O. D. MUNN.

ROBERT T. WILDE. 

